5 great movies about troubled marriages

1. "Scenes From a Marriage" (1973)

Marriage, in all its states, is such a universal topic that it's been portrayed in countless films. But troubled marriages can provide showy performances and moments of uncomfortable truth. Here are five great examples!

One of Ingmar Bergman's very best, this intimate and piercing drama follows a seemingly happy, upper-middle class Swedish couple over the years as their marriage falls apart. Marianne (Liv Ullmann) and Johan (Erland Josephson) destroy each other, drift apart and eventually wind up with other people, but still find themselves intrinsically tied to each other. Working with his longtime collaborator, the great cinematographer Sven Nyqvist, Bergman is unflinching and uncompromising in his examination of this flawed and all-too human love affair, and Ullmann and Josephson are pitch-perfect. Originally presented as a six-part TV miniseries, it was edited down to a feature film of nearly three hours. Not a moment of emotion has been lost.